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Friday, October 19, 2012

It's been a while since my last post. Looking now....yeah quite a while. Well as soon as I finished on the other two bags for mom, the new season of football in Second Life has started. In case your not familiar with Second Life it's a 3D virtual world game. I design, and draw clothing for avatars (characters) in Corel Paint Shop. So if I'm not playing with fabric an paint in the real world, I go and play with my pretty pixel pixel paints in the computer. Along with the football of course is cheerleaders. Cheerleaders need uniforms, pom poms and shoes, cute accessories and what nots, so they come to me. Which I do not mind at all because I love doing it, and it makes them happy which makes me happy to make people happy and its just a song that never ends, cause it goes on and on my friend. LOL ( It's so stuck in your head now ha ha)

Anywho here are a few pictures of the uniforms I design in my paintshop and then create in the virtual world of Second Life :) . The avatar model is my character in the game. (If I only looked like her lol)

And of course there is the Dance team Dazzlers Inc. team uniforms, of course I love the best since I've been part of it since 2009. We do performances for events, real life charities like Relay for Life, Broadway shows and holiday shows. It's a lot of fun when its time to take a break from creating lol.

Tuesday, September 25, 2012

Some times it really scares me how fast time goes by. Like the old saying, "So many things to do, so little time to do them in", so rings true in my life for sure! I've been busy with things like teaching my niece to do a Swedish Weave blanket. She was super worried that she wouldn't be able to do it but I knew she would be awesome at it. She had that "itch" in her fingers to do it, and you can't fight that. Like a mosquito bite, no matter how much you try to ignore it, eventually you scratch it. (or maybe I'm just weak lol)

Any how shes going right to town and loving it. Shes about 3/4 of the way done and shes doing an amazing job being her first time. Of course shes made her mistakes along the way, so plenty of pulling it out and starting over, but that's the joy of learning sumfin new!

Also this past two weeks we found out that there is going to be lots of babies on the way due to arrive early spring. The fabric stores have been having such great sales since Labor Day, blowing all their stuff out. I'm eagerly hoping that the sales were for new stuff coming in. I'm excited to see. I got some great material so far and made a few diaper bags that turned out awesome, and I'm all pumped up to make more from the other prints!

The fabric for this is all gone :( they are completely out of it.

I have plenty of this left.

Out of this too.

Today I have two more to make so I best get busy or I will find something else to blog on or to do and just procrastinate lol. Until my next up date...Huggles!

Friday, September 7, 2012

Oh my gosh I so know better! LOL Here I have had my HE washer for almost 7 years and boy did I make a huge booboo. Normally I am totally OCD when it comes to buying cleaning products, so I take my time. Oh no, not this time. Maybe it was because Tide has new labeling that they started around the 4th of July that distracted me. Yes you've probably guessed I bought regular instead of the HE. Amazingly I have been using it for about a week now, there was only one small clue that I noticed in that time and that was my clothes didn't feel as soft as usual. (little crunchy like I didn't use softener when I did). Of course like most people I don't sit and watch the entire cycle on the machine, well admittedly I do some times when I need a time out to calm down. LOL But anywho...I threw a load in and noticed it was taking a rather long time. Low and behold the lcd said SUD. I said UGH. :(

This isn't my washer but just imagine covering the entire glass lol

A whole wonderful tub full of suds that completely covered the glass. So I pulled out my manual, and found the problem right off, wrong soap! Fortunately, it has a cycle to take care of the problem but it takes a long time. So here are the steps I took to rid the SUD problem...

I was able to cancel the load wash so the door would unlock. I took a large bath towel and had it ready when I ever so SLOWLY opened the door. ( don't open fast cause your just asking for a massive bubble blob to land on your feet! lol ) Cradle the bubbles with the towel and roll them back in the tub and spread the towel over as much of the suds as you can. The dry towel will start to break the bubbles, this works in the tub too when the bubble bath gets out of control lol.

Once the suds are somewhat under control and you have at least half of the tub free, take about a cup of vinegar and pour over the towel. I learned a long time ago from my Grandma that vinegar will kill the suds even with Dawn. (Grandpa put Dawn directly in the dishwasher heh heh men).

I started a rinse and spin cycle and woo hoo them little babies went poof! Yay! The laundry room smelled like I was making pickles in the washer for a while but it certainly was better than doing the "Scoop and Dump" some where routine to get rid of them lol.

Wednesday, August 29, 2012

I started off with a night of cutting squares, 12 yards worth! That's a ton of 8 inch squares!

I alternated the back of the quilt with the medium and dark blue hoping to get a checker board but it ended up with a two square diagonal alternating colors. It turned out really cool, I couldn't have done it better if I had planned it!

It was a lot of work but when they are finished it's totally worth the work!

Here is the tutorial that I used for this one ( click here). She does a great job on this tutorial. Only difference is I didn't us batting, I just used flannel for the top and flannel for the bottoms. Oh yeah I told ya all that in the previous post, lol . But anywho these are great quilts and don't take up alot of time. I know the boys will love these for Christmas. When I get the second one done I'll make some special tags to put on one of the squares on back so they will always remember grandma made them with love special just for them!

Monday, August 27, 2012

I decided the other day after finishing my first rag quilt that I loved how it turned out so much that I'm going to make the boys each one for christmas. This time I'm going to use the right materials.

This one I did with top layer cotton print, fleece for the backing. Where I messed up is I thought "Oh the scraps of InsulBright I have left over will be perfect". Buzz! Wrong answer, thanks for playin! The InsulBright was just too stiff and thick for it for a baby blanket, plus the thick layers was extremely hard to sew through. So, it will be come my lap blankie, grant you its super warm and the fleece is so soft, but just not cuddly.

My crafty buddy Bambi thinks it's cuddly and when I shooed him off this is the look I got!

Pitiful. I know I'm a horrible mamma :( lol he's just a boob!

The fabric store had all it's fleece and flannels on sale for the Labor Day holiday, so me and hubbies mom raided them lol. This journey will entail fleece and flannel and no InsulBright lol I'll keep that for the hot pads and casserole carriers!

Here's what goodies I brought home today. I think they are gonna turn out super cute!

Now that they are all washed, I'm off to cut the squares! I'll keep ya posted!

Wednesday, August 22, 2012

Well this morning, after making the nectar of gods (Iced special dark mocha), being extra quiet not to wake up Peanut I got the pattern finished, fine tuned and cut out.

Eventually she woke up and sat on the desk thinking she was being smart and interrupting what I was doing. I let her think she was accomplishing her task, smooched and loved on her till she drooled and then carried on with assembly.

She did her help by cleaning off the pencils, ruler, fabric scraps, and random pieces of paper that were scattered on the desk. Now if I can teach her to put them away instead of fwapping them on the floor we'll be in business lol. So with Peanuts help my little project came out Jammie!

I'm not the best picture taker but you get the idea lol.

If you would like to see a tutorial on this or any item let me know in comments!

I started to make a pattern for a toilet paper holder that would hang above and behind the toilet. With men in the house its difficult to have a canister that sits on the floor. ( we mom's all know about that lol ) So anyhow after every one went to bed and all the furry critters were asleep I sat down to see what I could make. After peaceful searching I found a design liked and started to make the pattern.

Some one decided that she wanted to go to bed. She did her little "Mom, come to bed" song but I wanted to finish getting my idea on paper before I called it a night.

Since I didn't respond to her singing she decided to come up and see what I was doing that I found so facinating.

Then I got the "look".

I said "Come on Peanut just 10 more minutes and mommy will be done"

Then it was "I'm ignoring you".

And now it's "I'm giving you no choice but to go to bed mom you won't be able to draw another line".

LOL

So, I put every thing up and said "okay get in your spot". She hopped over to the bed and nestled into her spot on the bed. Now you tell me they aren't smart lol!

Oh I almost forgot to show you the back. I even learned how to put a wee snap on it too! Yay Me!

As you can see on bias tape I resist the urge to be a rebel. I pin baby pin! Makes it so much easier to not have to do any fighting on the machine and you just tip toe through the tulips and you come out smelling like flowers!

Here in Texas we have Tax Free days and today is one of them! Yay! So, since I didn't have every thing I needed for bibs, today would be a perfect day to do it. Poked hubby a few times to wake him from his early morning nap and shuffled him out the door to Wally World (Walmart). Luckily we got there before every one got out of church, cause its a stinking mad house in there by noon.

If I'm trying a new pattern for the first time I like to use the material I pick up for under 2 dollars a yard. Some times not the best quality, or the best prints, but if it turns out and is something great on 2 dollar material, it will be spectacular on the designer material. Today was a pretty good day for the selection, found some super cuteness. Of course, it takes forever to rummage through the stacks of sloppy bolts that previous customers just tossed back up. I have to really restrain my self from tidying up, cause they aren't paying me to do it. My old saying....Messy desk, messy head.

So here is what treasures I hauled home today lol.

I also picked up some terry cloth towels too for the back of the bibs for $1.95 each which is a little cheaper than buying it in bulk.

That's one more perk for the kids going back to school!

A lot of times they will have fat quarters in the clearance bin and pick them up for 50 cents, normally they are 97 cents which isn't too bad. I get these to make Bias Tape. Forget paying almost 4 dollars for it pre-made, I'll save up that money to get the fancy smanchy machine that does it for me lol. Okay, so I mention the fat quarters because I found this awesome tutorial on how to make 5 yards of bias tape out of it. Awesome! No more boring trim! (does the little pointy finger happy dance) You can check the tutorial out here. While your there she's got some other great tutorials too so check em out.

It really is simple I did it and only cussed once. Sorry mom but I stuck my finger with a pin. lol

Pretty!

Now for the fun part getting it all pressed out. (not really but its worth it to have cute!) This part is what the machine does for you. So yeah saving up for it!

TaDum! All ready to go! 5 yards of super cuteness for .97 cents!

Now it's definately time for a fresh cup a iced mocha and a stroll around the yard to work of the wee bit of numb bum I got going on lol!

Saturday, August 18, 2012

Finally it rained. The weather here in central Texas has been teasing us all week. Temperatures above 100 with this nice thing called heat index when the humidity is above like 20% it makes it feel like 105 to 110F. Then with afternoon clouds that come lumbering across a perfectly blue sky, kicking your hopes up for rain, then the closer they get the more they burn off. Nature is cruel.

But, today the rain came. Sat on the porch and breathed in the clean air and the cool mist on my skin as the breeze skipped by. Decided "this would be a good morning to sit on the porch and drink my coffee before tackling my wifely duties". Started the coffee pot so that oh so heavenly scent could fill the house along with my sugar cookie candle, and proceeded to the bedroom for my coffee cup. As I grabbed my cup I just happened to look up. Oh nice, directly above is this wonderful water spot on the ceiling, its definately not the old one that has been there since we bought the house. Its now having babies lol.

So now I am hoping the rain subsides for a little bit to get the roof fixed. If not, instead of a nice rainy day, drinking coffee and makin sumfin cute, I'll be rearranging furniture lol.

Ok, so I finally decided to do this. I seriously don't know what I am doing. So, like most everything I do, soldier on make my mistakes and turn them into a lesson well learned. And of course, along the way I'll probably make a massive mess that either looks like 60 toddelers with crayons on paper or they were just let to run amuck in the house unattended. lol Kina sounds like fun!

Recently, my sister Anne, and my daughter Tatiana directed me to Pinterest. (Yes, lovely another addiction that I'm not planning on kicking). I stumbled across the Six Sisters Stuff blog and was so...how should I say it...deeply inspired. It is such a wonderful way for them to share their lives with each other despite the miles that separate them. Because I am older and left home when my sisters and brothers were still in grade school, my hope is they will be able to get to know me better on another level (get past "your so wierd tonia" lol). Eventually, hopefully, get them posting on here as well (when I figure it out lol). Then the task of getting mom in the middle of it too. But, I'll tackle that when I'm blog savvy.

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About Me

Hi I'm Tonia, also known as Charmie.
Born and raised in Idaho but transplanted to Texas 7 years ago by an awesome guy that I love dearly (when he's not driving me insane lol). We have 3 girls and three grandsons , and many kitties to be intrudeced later. I'm also the oldest of 9, and now that I'm so called grown up I'm so grateful to be part of a large family. So that's the contents of my nutshell, you'll learn the rest in this blog with a variety of creations, recipes, and random thoughts.